Samsung Electronics is conducting a pilot of its "EHS All-in-One" high-efficiency heat pump in an apartment-style environment. A Samsung Electronics employee inspects the unit installed at the residential performance research lab. [Samsung Electronics]
Samsung Electronics is conducting a pilot of its "EHS All-in-One" high-efficiency heat pump in an apartment-style environment. A Samsung Electronics employee inspects the unit installed at the residential performance research lab. [Samsung Electronics]

Samsung Electronics said Monday it has begun piloting its high-efficiency heat pump heating and cooling system, the "EHS All-in-One," in an apartment-style residential environment this month.

Heat pump technology has largely been optimized for single-family homes, and the trial is drawing attention for its potential to extend the technology to apartments — the dominant housing type in South Korea. A key question is whether the system can ease prospective buyers' concerns about electricity costs.

Samsung Electronics installed the EHS All-in-One at Samsung C&T's residential performance research lab in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, where it will comprehensively evaluate heating, cooling and hot-water performance, energy efficiency, and ease of use in an environment configured to replicate an actual apartment.

Through the pilot, the company plans to measure heating performance and energy savings compared with conventional gas boilers, as well as cooling and hot-water output, power consumption and noise levels. Data gathered will serve as foundational material for future efforts to roll out heat pumps in apartment buildings.

The pilot uses the EHS All-in-One currently sold in European markets. The unit's defining feature is its ability to deliver both direct air-to-air cooling (A2A) and water-based underfloor heating and hot water (A2W) from a single outdoor unit simultaneously.

Conventional residential heat pumps in South Korea primarily use the A2W method to provide underfloor heating and hot water, requiring a separate air conditioner for cooling. The EHS All-in-One integrates A2A and A2W into a single system, covering air cooling, underfloor heating and hot-water supply together.

The product also incorporates heat recovery technology that recycles waste heat generated during cooling for hot-water production. Heat released when running the air conditioning in summer can be redirected to heat water, cutting power consumption and enabling the system to use more than twice the thermal energy of conventional methods.

In addition, the unit uses R32 refrigerant, which has a global warming potential roughly 68 percent lower than the R410A refrigerant commonly used in conventional cooling equipment.

As carbon neutrality in the building sector has emerged as a global challenge, the rollout of high-efficiency heat pumps capable of replacing fossil fuels in heating is accelerating worldwide.

South Korea's government is pursuing a policy to shift residential heating to electricity, examining expanded heat pump deployment in apartments and other multi-unit buildings following earlier efforts focused on single-family homes. Under its 2050 carbon neutrality target, the government plans to deploy 3.5 million heat pump boilers by 2035, a move it says would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5.18 million tons.

Securing performance and operational data from actual apartment environments has accordingly become a critical task.

"This pilot goes beyond confirming product performance — it is a project to verify whether heat pumps can genuinely replace gas boilers in real apartment settings," said Lim Seong-taek, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics' DA Business Division. "Based on the data we gather, we plan to continue expanding heat pump technology development and deployment to support the transition to electricity-based heating and cooling in apartment buildings and to achieve carbon neutrality in the building sector."


jeongwan@heraldcorp.com